Hydraulic fracturing of oil or gas containing reservoirs is a technique routinely used to improve or stimulate the recovery of hydrocarbons. In such treatments, hydraulic fracturing is usually accomplished by introducing a proppant-laden treatment fluid into a producing interval at high pressures and at high rates sufficient to crack the rock open. This fluid induces a fracture in the reservoir as it leaks off in the surrounding formation and transports proppant into the fracture. After the treatment, proppant remains in the fracture in the form of a permeable and porous proppant pack that serves to maintain the fracture open as hydrocarbons are produced. In this way, the proppant pack forms a highly conductive pathway for hydrocarbons and/or other formation fluids to flow into the wellbore.
Typically, viscous fluids or foams are employed as fracturing fluids in order to provide a medium that will have sufficient viscosity to crack the rock open, adequately suspend and transport solid proppant materials, as well as decrease loss of fracture fluid to the formation during treatment (commonly referred to as “fluid loss”). While reduced fluid loss allows for better efficiency of the treatment, higher fluid loss corresponds to fluids “wasted” in the reservoir, and implies a more expensive treatment. Also, it is known that the degree of fluid loss can significantly depend upon formation permeability. Furthermore fluid efficiency of a fracture fluid may affect fracture geometry, since the viscosity of the fluid might change as the fluid is lost in the formation. This is the case for polymer-based fracturing fluids that concentrate in lower permeability formations as the fracture propagates due to leak off of the water in the formation, while the polymer molecules remain in the fracture by simple size exclusion from the pores of the reservoir. The fluid in the fracture increases in viscosity as the fracture propagates and the fracture generated will also increase in width as well as in length. In the case of viscoelastic surfactant (VES) based fluids, the fracturing fluid does not concentrate since the fracturing fluid is lost in the formation and typically the fractures generated are long and very narrow. Hence, fluid efficiency affects fracture geometry.
For VES based fluids, excessive fluid loss can result in fractures that are narrower than in the case of polymer based fluids. Also, excessive fluid loss may translate into significant job size where hundreds of thousands of additional gallons of water may be pumped to generate the required length of fracture and overcome low fluid efficiency. Fracturing fluids should have a minimal leak-off rate to avoid fluid migration into the formation rocks and minimize the damage that the fracturing fluid or the water leaking off does to the formation. Also the fluid loss should be minimized such that the fracturing fluid remains in the fracture and can be more easily degraded, so as not to leave residual material that may prevent hydrocarbons to flow into the wellbore.
Early fracturing fluids were constituted of viscous or gelled oil but, with the understanding that formation damage due to water may not be as important as originally thought, aqueous fracturing fluids mainly consisting of “linear” polymeric gels comprising guar, derivatized guar, cellulose, or derivatized cellulose were introduced. In order to attain a sufficient fluid viscosity and thermal stability in high temperature reservoirs, linear polymer gels were partially replaced by cross-linked polymer gels such as those based on guar crosslinked with borate or polymers crosslinked with metallic ions. However, as it became apparent that crosslinked polymer gel residues might not degrade completely and leave a proppant pack with an impaired retained conductivity, fluids with lower polymer content were introduced. In addition, some additives were introduced to improve the cleanup of polymer-based fracturing fluids. These included polymer breakers. Nonetheless the polymer based fracturing treatments leave proppant pack with damaged retained conductivity since the polymer fluids concentrate in the fracture while the water leaks off in the reservoir that may impair the production of hydrocarbons from the reservoir.
Other fracturing fluids with improved cleanup, i.e. that leave a proppant pack with higher retained conductivity, have been developed. Examples are fluids that use viscoelastic surfactants (VES) as viscosifiers. The viscoelastic surfactant molecules, when present at a sufficient concentration, may aggregate into overlapping worm- or rod-like micelles, which confer the necessary viscosity to the fluid to carry the proppant during fracturing. At very high shear rate however, the viscosity may decrease. Also, the surfactant worm- or rod-like micelles tend to disaggregate by contact with hydrocarbons and, if no surfactant emulsion is effectively formed, the surfactant molecules are normally carried along the fracture, to the well bore, during the hydrocarbon backflow.
Yet another approach to limit the damage of the proppant pack, is to use water based treatments with friction reducers (referred as slickwater treatments), and pump the fracturing fluids at much higher rates in the formation. The proppant is carried to the formation due to the high flow rates. The limitation of the treatments is that the maximum proppant concentration that can be placed is limited to a small concentration since the fluid has low viscosity. Another limitation is very low fluid efficiency and therefore the size of the slickwater treatments is much larger than treatments that employ viscous fracturing fluids.
Based on reservoir simulations and field data, it is commonly observed that production resulting from a fracturing treatment is often lower than expected. This phenomenon is particularly the case in tight gas formations. Indeed, production can be decreased significantly by concentrated polymer left in the fracture due to leak off of the fracturing fluid during treatment. Filter cakes may result in poor proppant pack cleanup due to the yield stress properties of the fluid. This may happen when a crosslinked polymer based fluid is pumped that leaks off into the matrix and becomes concentrated, and extremely difficult to remove. Breaker effectiveness may thus become reduced, and viscous fingering inside the proppant pack may occur which further results in poor cleanup. Furthermore, the filter cake yield stress created by the leak off process can occlude the fracture width and restrict fluid flow, resulting in a reduction in the effective fracture half-length.
Accordingly, there is also a need for methods for treating subterranean formations using fluids which enable efficient pumping, which significantly decrease and control the leak off relative to conventional fracturing treatments in order to reduce the damage to production, while having good cleanup properties as well as improved fluid efficiency (i.e. providing less expensive and time-consuming treatment). These needs are met, at least in part, with the following application.
Furthermore, fractures in reservoirs normally have the highest flow capacity of any portion of the reservoir formation. These fractures in the formation may be natural or hydraulically generated. In a natural fault in the rock structure, the high flow capacity results either from the same factors as for natural fractures or from the fracture being open for example due to natural asperities or because the rock is hard and the closure stress is low. In artificially created fractures, such as those created by hydraulic fracturing or acid fracturing, the high flow capacity results from the fracture being either propped with a very permeable bed of material or etched along the fracture face with acid or other material that has dissolved part of the formation.
Fractures of interest in this field are typically connected to the formation and to the wellbore. Large volumes of fluids will travel through fractures due to their high flow capacity. This allows wells to have high fluid rates for production or injection. Normally, this is desirable.
However, in the course of creating or using an oil or gas well, it is often desirable to plug or partially plug regions in the formation, thereby reducing its flow capacity. Typically the reasons for plugging these fractures are that a) they are producing unwanted water or gas, b) there is non-uniformity of injected fluid (such as water or CO2) in an enhanced recovery flood, or c) expensive materials (such as hydraulic fracturing fluids during fracturing) are being injected into non-producing areas of the formation. This latter case can be particularly deleterious if it results in undesirable fracture growth because at best it wastes manpower, hydraulic horsepower, and materials, to produce a fracture where it is not needed, and at worst it results in the growth of a fracture into a region from which undesirable fluids, such as water, are produced.
Past techniques for plugging fractures have included cement systems, hydrating clays, and both crosslinked and non-crosslinked polymer solutions. The disadvantages of cement systems are the requirements for expensive materials and well work, and the systems' inability to travel down the fracture without bridging prematurely. The hydrating clays require the complexity and cost of pumping oil-based systems plus expensive well work. The hydrating clays also have the same problem as the cement with regard to placement: needing to avoid premature bridging; they also have the requirement of needing to hydrate fully along the fracture. The polymer systems often fail due to their lack of flow resistance in very permeable fractures and because the materials are expensive considering the large volumes that are required. There is a need for an inexpensive, reliable, easily placed, effective well plugging material and methods for use during well completion or remediation, especially stimulation, and during fluids production.